JUDD Trump threw in a sub-standard display against Tom Ford – but held his nerve at the death to edge into the second round of the Dafabet World Championship.

The 24-year-old, a former world No1 and UK Championship winner, looked totally out of sorts in his opener at this year’s tournament where he reached the semi-finals 12 months ago.

But after Leicester’s world No39 Ford squandered chances to go one up with two to play Trump made him pay to win 10-8 in unconvincing fashion.

Trump, who will now play Wales’ Ryan Day for a place in the quarter-finals, never looked at ease and afterwards claimed he had been “bored”, pointing the finger at Ford’s pace of play.

And despite trying to insist that world titles have been won playing badly as long as the wins are pocketed, it looks a certainty that Trump will need to play a lot better to have another good run in Sheffield this year.

After a display out of keeping with the glitzy Jimmy Choo shoes he was sporting Trump, who even suffered the indignity of being hauled off early leading 6-2 in the first session, said: “It is a relief to win, and probably the less said about that match and performance the better.

“I just got bored. Tom was playing slowly and taking a lot of time to look at his shots. I lost my concentration, and if it had carried on I would have lost.

“So I started taking everything on and just got through. At 8-8 he had chances, and I didn’t feel comfortable out there.

“Maybe I can drag other opponents down to my level – but against Ryan I will be surprised if frames last more than 15 minutes.”